Pentagon chief visits Demilitarized Zone, peeks into North Korea

• 2 countries' military chiefs conduct joint commander's flight for 1st time in alliance's history

ISTANBUL

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday visited Korea’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), peeking over the border into North Korea, on his maiden trip to South Korea.

He was accompanied by South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back, Yonhap News reported.

The two defense chiefs visited Observation Post Ouellette, the UN Command's military facility close to the Military Demarcation Line, and the Joint Security Area in the DMZ, marking the first joint visit to the buffer zone by the countries’ defense chiefs since 2017.

The UN Command has continued to oversee armistice conditions since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.

The 250-kilometer (155-mile) DMZ is a buffer zone between South and North Korea. The two remain technically at war as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Hegseth and Ahn are scheduled to hold a security consultative meeting on Tuesday, when he is expected to also meet President Lee Jae Myung.

During the meeting, the two sides are expected to discuss various topics such as the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) from Washington to Seoul and South Korea's defense spending.

The administration of South Korean President Lee is looking to retake wartime OPCON from the US within its five-year term, which ends in 2030.



Historic flight

South Korea is one of the US’ oldest military allies in Asia, hosting around 28,500 American soldiers on the Korean Peninsula, while the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff holds peacetime OPCON and the US-led Combined Forces Command holds operational control during war.

During the Korean War, South Korea placed operational control of its forces under the US-led UN Command. In 1978, that authority was shifted to the allies’ Combined Forces Command.

While wartime operational control has since remained with the US, South Korea regained peacetime control of its military in 1994.

South Korea is the last stop of Hegseth's Asia swing visit, which included stops in Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Also on Monday, the military chiefs of the two countries conducted a joint commander's flight for the first time in the alliance's history.

According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Jin Yong-sung, chairman of the JCS, and his US counterpart Gen. Dan Caine led a combined formation flight on South Korean and US fighter jets following the 50th Military Committee Meeting in Seoul.

The flight involved five aircraft, including the KF-16 flown by Jin and the F-16 flown by Caine.